principle upon which government had acted was not sound; if the measures resorted to had only paralysed the efforts of the Spanish nation, for God's sake let the administration of the government be trusted to more enthusiastic and abler hands! But the enthusiasm in Spain was not pretended; what they had in their mouths, they felt in their earts: they were enthusiastically determined to defend their country to the last extremity, or to perish under its ruins. The language held to Spain was not, that no assistance should be afforded till a supreme government should be established; but whilst the assistance was sent to every part of Spain, we called upon that country to collect its authority in one supreme government, not in order to obtain our assistance, but to induce other nations of Europe to join in assisting their exertions. Until this supreme government had been established, no accredited minister could be sent to Spain; but at an early period of the national ebulli tion, agents had been sent by his majesty's ministers to all parts of Spain, and from the information collected from these gentlemen, they were enabled to judge for themselves. The right honourable gentleman had objected to the appointment of any other than a military man in a mission to Spain; but as the objects of the right ho nourable gentleman are of a philosophical nature, military men would not have been the most proper persons to be employed to accomplish them. But was there no other way of knowing the state of the country than by the barren reports of the agents who might be sent thither? If one were desirous of knowing what was passing in England, would he not ask whether such or such a person, who may have been known in Europe to be connected with public affairs, had any share in the passing transactions? This source of information was open to us in Spain, and the men connected with the national struggle afforded the best illustration of the principle, and the best comment upon the cause. In Catalonia, Espelota, who had been governor of South America, and president of the council of Castile, took the lead. In Castile, Cuesta was at the head of the army in Murcia, the venerable Florida Blanca, the ablest statesman in Europe. Besides these and others, there were Saavera and Jovallanos; the former an able minister for foreign affairs, the latter distinguished in the home department, whose connexion with the popular ebullition was a fortunate omen of its success, and a distinct proof of its extent. But these were not ali: amongst t those who attended their sovereign to Bayonne, and who took the earliest opportunity to join their country, were don P. Cevallos and the duke d'Infantad. When the hoary wisdom of age and the distinguished individuals of every rank were associated for the common defence of their country, who could doubt of their cause? This was a state of things which his majesty's ministers could easily discern without the aid of the spectacles presented by the right honourable gentleman. The mili tary part of the transaction may have disappointed expectation, but the cause is not desperate. The soldiers who conquered at Baylen, and those who rallied after the defeat of Rio Seco; those who defended Madrid before they were soldiers, and drove the French out of Castile, are still staunch in the cause. The spirit of the people is unsub unsubdued; the boundaries of Freach power are confined within the limits of their military ports: the throne of Joseph is erected on sand, and will totter with the first blast; and Bonaparte, even should he succeed, instead of a yielding and unreproaching ally, will have an impatient, revolting, and bu lent nation to keep down. In this state of things he could not admit that the cause of Spain was desperate. Austria and Prussia had sunk under the fortune of Bona parte; but though his career had not been stopped, it had been in terrupted by an unarmed population in Spain. The cause of Spain and of Europe was not desperate because our army of thirty or forty thousand men had been obliged to withdraw from Spain; and it was not just to the country, or to the army which he hoped would again prove the stay of Europe, to as sert that its honour was in consequence gone for ever. All the energy of liberty and all the sacredness of loyalty still survived, and the Spanish revolution was, he trusted, destined by Providence to stand between posterity and French despotism. The object of the motion of the right honourable gentleman was, to take the administration of the government out of their hands, in which it was at present placed. Bat he begged that ministers might be judged of by comparison. Mr.Windham, made a very elaborate speech, and other gentlemen followed. The house divided: 127 - 220 Majority 93 Feb. 27. Sir Samuel Romilly gave notice of a motion, for Wed nesday, for leave to bring in a bill to alter and amend the laws relating to bankrupts. The objects, he said, were numerous and important, and the explanation at that moment would occupy more of the atten tion of the house than was customary in giving mere notice of a motion. He should therefore postpone explaining the nature of the bill until the day of his motion. The secretary at war then pro ceeded to move the army estimates, upon which he stated, that several exceedings would necessarily accrue under different heads of estimates, upon comparison with those of the last year; part of which arose from necessary occurrences of expendi ture, as the increase of the public force both in the line and militia, the staff of garrisons, and the staff abroad; the increase of objects upon the Greenwich and Kilmainham hospitals, the pensions to widows, the additional deputy paymasters, and some increase of salary to the junior clerks in the war offices, with the necessary addition of some su pernumeraries, occasioned by the pressure and increase of business in that department. Many of these exceedings again were merely nominal, and not a real increase; for they had been uniformly paid before under the head of military contingences: but in compliance with the recommendation of the finance committee, it was deemed right to bring every charge which was ascertainable under some specific head of estimate; and where the estimate of the preceding year had fallen considerably short of the real expenditure, it was deemed right to make the estimate for the present at the real amount which experience had proved it to be. There was also another head of expenditure, where the sun charged K 3 would would greatly exceed the reality, namely, the clothing for the local militia. This estimate was for four years, and therefore only one-fourth of the sum was really chargeable to the present year, although the whole must be advanced. But against the expense of this corps, there would be a considerable saving from that of the volunteers, great numbers of whom had transferred their services to the local militia. The right honourable secre tary, as he went on, specified the several sums of exceeding, and said, he was ready to answer any objections that might be offered. Mr. Martin said, that upon the military estimate of the present year, so great an exceeding as 1,500,000. over that of the last, when the burdens of the people were increased to such a pitch, was a subject that called for the most minute and satisfactory explanation. In the office of payraaster-general, for instance, there was a charge for deputy paymasters of 54,771, exceeding by 20,0007, the estimate for the last year. This surely called for some explanation, more especially as it was understood that some of those persons performed their official duties by deputy; the paymaster of Gibraltar, for instance, who, he understood, never was seen there, but received his salary as a sinecure. Upon the charge of the office of secretary at war, 54,848, there was an exceeding over the last year of 27,8481.; on the head of foreign corps there was another exceeding of 70,8001., and under other heads there was a sum of 54,000 consisting entirely of new charges. A conversation of some length took place, when The following sums were voted for the following purposes: Land forces (including various miscel laneous services, Regiments in the East Indies Troops and companies for recruiting ditto Staff and garrisons Full pay to supernumerary officers Half-pay and military allowances } £. S. d. 7,582,378 16 11 666,373 5 0 29,322 10 0 3,048,647 19 5 449,649 7 9 31,796 1 3 Public departments 257,711 18 3 233,568 5 1 In-pensioners of Chelsea and Kilmainham 67,143 14 11 hospitals Out-pensioners of ditto Widows' pensions 425,269 1 9 49,437 11 8 Volunteer corps 1,000,820 0 0 Local militia 1,219,803 Ŏ 0 March 1. Sir Samuel Romilly rose, not, he said, merely in pur. stance of his notice a few evenings since, but of the intimation which he gave to the house three years ago, to move for leave to bring in a bill to alter and amend certain of the bankruptcy laws. He had be fore the honour to suggest to the house the urgent necessity of some alteration in the system of those laws. He did not mean to attempt any thing like a total change, how.. ever desirable that might be. It was his object to point out some of the most prominent defects, and to submit to the house such remedies as appeared to him not difficult to carry into effect. He feared that he must still leave many points untouched, respecting which it was to be wished some material change should be adopted. It would be extremely desirable to abolish the whole system of those laws, and to enact others more eligible in their stead. This, however, he had not the courage to attempt, but must leave the task for some more able advocate at a more propitious opportunity. For the present, it was necessary to trespass shortly on the attention of the house, in pointing out the particular defects which it would be the object of his bill to remedy. The first was, that, by the bank rupt laws as they now stood, although the debtor surrenders the whole of his effects under the commission, there were often creditors to a considerable amount who could claim no dividend; and the bank rupt, though deprived of his last shilling, was still liable to be arrested by such creditors, and imprisoned for life. The creditors to whom he alluded were those who, being joined in the same securities with the bankrupt, could not prove any debt against him, until they The next evil, which became a them them in account with 20 per cent. upon the money remaining in their hands. The next point to which he would call the attention of the house, was the heavy expense of proceeding under statutes of bank ruptcy. As the law now stood, it was necessary to prove some act of bankruptcy, on the part of the debtor, before a commission could issue; and it frequently happened, that the party, conscious of the difficulty of such proof, relied upon it to set aside the commission, and the proceeding was attended with very considerable expense. To remedy this, he should propose a clause to render it unnecessary for the assignees to produce their proceedings, unless the debtor shall serve notice, within a given time, that he means to contest the commission. Another matter he proposed to remedy was this: assignees were exposed to expensive proceedings for non-payment of dividends when once declared; instead of which proceedings by actions at common law, he should propose a more summary mode of relief to the claimant by a petition to the lord chancellor. The next topic to which he would advert, regarded a grievous op pression to which his majesty's subjects were often exposed, and the remedy which he should propose was, to take away from the creditor the power of refusing a certificate to the bankrupt who shall have made a fair and full disclosure of his effects. He intreated the house to consider for a moment the situation of an uncertificated bankrupt. He could follow no business: his industry must be lost to himself, to his family, and his country and notwithstanding that he had surrendered upon oath his last shilling, he was still liable to debts due before his bankruptcy, and to be imprisoned for life at the will of any exasperated or inexorable creditor. It was enacted by an act of the 5th Geo. II. that unless the certificate of the bankrupt be signed by creditors whose debts amount to four-fifths of the whole in number and total of his debt, such certificate shall be null and void, however honourably the bankrupt may have acted, and although his failure might have been the re sult of inevitable misfortunes: and even though not only four-fifths, but the whole of his other creditors in number, may be convinced of his integrity, and be ready to sign his certificate, a single creditor, whose claim may be just sufficiently large to enable him, by refusing to sign, to defeat the certificate on the score of the four-fifths in value, may not only deprive this unfortu nate man of all future livelihood by industry, but may consign him for the remainder of his days to pine and rot in a gaol. But this was not all; for if any creditor should refuse to come in as a claimant under the statute against the bankrupt's estate, he may nevertheless prove his debt for the purpose of increasing the aggregate sum, and defeating the bankrupt in the attainment of a certificate from creditors to the amount of fourfifths in value; and thus consign him to prison for life. Was it possible that a more aggravated griev ance could exist, or that any man could render his country, or the cause of humanity and justice, a greater service than by contriving to get rid of this oppressive system altogether? Was it to be believed that, under the mild and constitutional jurisprudence of England, a usage |